A big part of my morning is going through Google Reader. It is perhaps the most intense period of information consumption that I go through. If my trend statistics are accurate, I go through an average of 400 posts a day — at an almost alarming rate. This daily ritual is the center of my process for updating this blog. This all happens within about a 30 minute window. At the moment, I have 298 RSS feeds that I am subscribed to. I wondered what my list would look like if I had to limit it to just twenty. I took about 10-15 minutes to dwell on the subject enough to compile something that looked promising.

But First, the Rules

I do not get my news via RSS nor do I expect to hear about trending topics from it. My RSS reading is to find content that I will not see everywhere else on the internet. So first off, the sites like NPR, Kottke.org, FFFFOUND or Signal vs. Noise are immediately gone because I am all but certain to run across links to their content via Twitter, delicious, Reddit, etc. (yes, I subscribe to those sites, but if I had to choose twenty feeds, I would not). Secondly, this list ties directly to my blog interests — which, broad as they are — have general categories to follow. Therefore, my list would contain sites focused around general design, interaction design and design technology. Third, each feed in the list needs to have a high signal-to-noise ratio.

So, with that out of the way , here is my list of twenty feeds (OMPL). This list may not be the same a month from now, let alone an hour from now, but you are all but guaranteed to find some compelling work, links and ideas in this list.

While I am at it, I might as well break my own rule of not posting a “Top x” list of links by pointing out each feed below:

• 52 Weeks of UX (RSS)
• AisleOne (RSS)
• anthony mattox (RSS)
• bitique (RSS)
• blprnt.blg (RSS)
• but does it float (RSS)
• Changethethought (RSS)
• Chimes The official Utopian Key lifestream (RSS)
• CreativeApplications.Net (RSS)
• Datavisualization.ch (RSS)
• design work like (RSS)
• Monday By Noon (RSS)
• omarrr (RSS)
• Processing.org Pool (RSS)
• Reza Ali (RSS)
• siteInspire (RSS)
• Soulwire (RSS)
• Surfstation (RSS)
• Thinking for a Living (RSS)
• TypoJungle (RSS)

Yes, I have no doubt that your list of twenty is better. Why not show everyone how awesome you are by posting a link to your OPML file in the comments.